Articles by Maria Verlengia

With its social software platform Mzinga OmniSocial, Mzinga's goal is to deliver a role-based application with CRM capability that a company can then repurpose to collect information from its customers, CEO Alan Nugent told CRM Buyer Rather than concentrating on traditional CRM, Mzinga focuses on the enterprise network side to help companies create...

The Lithium Social Customer Suite is designed to help companies identify and manage a group of dedicated customers using social media channels. Referring to these types of social customers as "superfans," Lithium helps companies turn them into advocates for their products and services With the advent of social media, customers have found new ways t...

Fast-growing Jive Software offers businesses an extensible social business solution that integrates social networking, collaboration software, community software and social media monitoring across the entire enterprise. The company recently bolstered its board of directors with a number of executives from high-profile tech companies. Helping to gu...

Sage offers companies a choice of CRM options for sales automation, including Sage ACT, Sage CRM, and SalesLogix. The company currently has about 3.6 million users and serves about 80,000 businesses "Sage has a portfolio of CRM solutions," Joe Bergera, executive vice president and general manager of Sage, told CRM Buyer. "We have mobile solutions f...

With an option for open source development, SugarCRM offers a sales automation system that encompasses pipeline management, social CRM, and the entire lead-to-cash process. "The SugarCRM core sales automation functionality includes lead capture and lead distribution, opportunity and account management, quotes and product catalog, quota and forecasting, as well as dashboards and reporting," Clint Oram, CTO and cofounder of SugarCRM, told CRM Buyer.

LiveOps, a contact center software and call center outsourcing provider, recently announced six new features designed to enhance its contact center cloud solution. The enhancements include Call Flow Authoring Studio, configurable recording, real-time configurable dashboards, call visualization reporting, APIs and powerful administration tools LiveO...

With helpdesk, knowledge management, customer portal, email auto response, project management, and mobile access capabilities, Soffront prides itself on being a one-stop shop for customer service solutions "The customer service solution we offer is pretty comprehensive," Manu Das, CEO of Soffront, told CRM Buyer. "That's what our system does best."

FuzeDigital characterizes its customer service solution as social business software that uniquely blends comprehensive multichannel support and online community technologies. "The Fuze Suite is a blending of SCRM and E2.0 technologies," Chuck Van Court, president of FuzeDigital, told CRM Buyer. The community knowledge base, search engine capabilit...

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides customers with a complete customer service solution, including marketing, service automation and sales capabilities. Microsoft currently offers Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 as either an on-premise option or a partner-hosted version; Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is a version that customers can subscribe to on a per-us...

NetSuite CRM+ is a customer relationship management tool that provides users with more than just standard customer service functionality. NetSuite's system gives users the capability to run their entire business by providing a single view of the customer "NetSuite provides a complete business management suite," Paul Turner, the company's senior dir...

Salesforce.com's Service Cloud 2, a Web-based platform designed to help companies handle their customer service needs, includes integration with Salesforce Chatter, the service provider's new real-time collaboration tool "Service Cloud is the fasting-growing product offering," Fergus Griffin, vice president of product marketing at Salesforce.com, t...

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge.Part 2 offers advice on how to choose the right CRM tool.Part 3 provides some guidance on preparing for contract negotiations.Part 4 tackles the all-important step of embarking on an implementation.Part 5 considers how to rescue a project at risk of failure.Part 6 suggests some effective ways to get your sales staff enthusiastic about CRM.Part 7 explores the pros and cons of entrusting system maintenance to the cloud...

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge.Part 2 offers advice on how to choose the right CRM tool.Part 3 provides some guidance on preparing for contract negotiations.Part 4 tackles the all-important step of embarking on an implementation.Part 5 considers how to rescue a project at risk of failure.Part 6 suggests some effective ways to get your sales staff enthusiastic about CRM...

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge.Part 2 offers advice on how to choose the right CRM tool.Part 3 provides some guidance on preparing for contract negotiations.Part 4 tackles the all-important step of embarking on an implementation.Part 5 considers how to rescue a project at risk of failure...

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge.Part 2 offers advice on how to choose the right CRM tool.Part 3 provides some guidance on preparing for contract negotiations.Part 4 tackles the all-important step of embarking on an implementation A successful ...

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge.Part 2 offers advice on how to choose the right CRM tool.Part 3 provides some guidance on preparing for contract negotiations When it comes to implementing a new CRM system, small companies have several options....

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge.Part 2 offers advice on how to choose the right CRM tool Once a small business finds the perfect CRM solution for its needs, the owner or manager must then negotiate the appropriate legal agreements with the ven...

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge Once a small business decides to invest in a CRM solution to replace the patchwork assortment of tools it has been using to manage its information, the selection process can be daunting.

Ken Jones, cofounder and executive director of Maximo Nivel, an executive language center, knew his company needed a CRM tool as early as 2006. His company was growing fast and using a variety of tools to meet CRM needs, including Outlook. Unfortunately, like many small business owners, Jones was unaware of any CRM options available Philippa Kennea...

This story was originally published on Oct. 30, 2009, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Small businesses frequently rely on a haphazard assortment of tools to manage their CRM processes, such as email, contact managers and spreadsheets. However, such methods are usually not sustainable or scalable. ...